Yesterday I decided to try out the new chemicals and develop some film. When I mixed the developer I noticed that the bottle had been open when it arrived, which explains why there had been something sticky in the box. I wondered whether that might cause problems, but I wasn’t worrying too much and decided to give it a try anyway. After all I had shot a test roll precisely for that reason. Well, the result was a completely blank roll of film, grrr! The developer must have been open for a very long time. According to Tetenal the developer has a shelf life of two years once opened And no, I didn’t accidentally fix the film first, because the fixer has a completely different colour than the developer. I never even mix the fixer before the film sits in the developer, precisely not to mix up the order by accident.

After the ruined roll where I accidentally opened the back of the camera before reversing the film I now also ruined a roll with exhausted developer. Well, it both had to happen at some point, like all film mishaps. Two rolls in a row though? That’s bad luck! I also had a Kentmere film rip inside the camera once so that all the best negatives of the roll ended up scratched. One reason why I avoid Kentmere even though it’s so cheap. Another roll got stuck in the forwarding mechanism after I tried to fix the sprocket hole problem of my Zorki 3C and only half the roll was salvageable. I guess these accidents belong to the analog photography experience. Considering that I’m not all that experienced with film yet I didn’t have many problems yet. So far all of my exposed shots were developed alright. I lost a few shots due to underexposing them, but until now never due to problems with the developing process. Considering that I only recently started developing my own film it was actually surprising that all my experiments worked out so far. It was bound to happen at some point.

Obviously we complained about the developer and apparently a new bottle is on its way. I hope that one doesn’t ruin another roll of film. If so I will have to start brewing my own developer, like Caffenol (cheap instant coffee, washing soda and vitamin C). I wanted to try that anyway, but wasn’t really planning to do that now. Well, I just wait and see what happens with the new bottle of Tetenal Ultrafin.

These pictures were taken in the park in Aiete by the way. I also shot a roll of film, but I think I need to stand develop that one. I bet I must have been far off with my exposure times on the Zorki 4K when I look at the exif data of these shots with my Olympus.